Resistance is swirling all around us this week.
Are You Resisting Success?
Steven Pressfield, one of my heroes and the author of The War of Art, says in his new book Do The Work: “The more important a call or action is to our soul’s evolution, the more Resistance we will feel toward pursuing it.”
All the more reason to go for it, right?
Another favorite piece of advice from Steven Pressfield is about how to choose which one of your ideas to pursue first: The one that scares you the most.
The Many, Many Forms of Resistance
Then today as I was reading “Week 8: Recovering a Sense of Strength” in The Artist’s Way, I found the concept of Resistance coming up big time. Julia Cameron talks about the creative blocks we come up with to avoid our art:
- I’m too old. (age block)
- What am I going to get out of it? (finished product block)
- I’m too busy. (workaholism)
- I have more important things to do first. (workaholism)
- I have to overhaul my whole life first. (drama)
Taking Action to Overcome Resistance
Julia makes the point that we must take small, daily, creative actions to accomplish our creative goals rather than looking for one big sweeping gesture. This is one of my biggest pitfalls.
Steven Pressfield makes a similar point about showing up every day, to do the work.
Jennifer Louden says, “Just. Do. The. Writing.“
Sonia Choquette taught us, “Suit up. Shut up. Show Up.” (I’m fairly certain she attributes this teaching to Julia Cameron herself.)
What To Do With All This
At the end of our session today, we outlined our Secret [Big] Dreams. “In a perfect world, I would secretly love to be a ______________.” My answer: A published author.
Then we identified our “true north” for that dream — the how-you-know-when-you-get-there goal. Mine: A real physical book published with a core group 0f raving fans.
We picked a mentor for that dream. (Mine: Steven Pressfield. Seems obvious!)
Then we identified a 5 year vision and a 1 year action plan. My one year action plan looked like this: Write regularly. Get clear on what to focus on.
So I asked myself, “Of all my ideas, what would scare me the most?” The answer: A creativity book. (Holy shit, Batman.)
My participants asked why — my “Who do I think I am?” stories come up fast. But I’m ready to go there anyway. So now I know what my book is about, and I can get to work on it along with my screenplay (which I’ve been working on this week, hurrah!). Yowza.
Hi Jenna,
Great article. War of Art is a wonderful book about resistance.
I’ve noticed for some time that the resistance surrounds us – it’s in us, it’s outside of us, it’s what most tweets are really about if you read between the 140 characters.
For me, I’ve traced it to our schooling. If you sit kids at desks for 12 to 16 years, tell them what to do every day, insist they have to ask for permission to even go to the bathroom, take away all their rights in the name of safety or whatever you want to pretend it is, cram their head with information some dude in a corner office thinks should be in there, then you get what we have now when they become adults.
People who cannot move forward with their own ideas. If we want to stop this global, economic disaster then we need to change the schools. children are very evolved and in touch with themselves. we rob them of that in the name of learning when they learn naturally.
Let’s change course before we hit the iceberg. Thx, G.
p.s. thanks for comment luv!
Gorgeous new logo–I love it!!! I think it is perfect for you and your work, too. Can’t wait to see the whole new site! :) Thanks for this article, too…Our secret big dreams are VERY similar. I appreciate you writing on this, as always!
My ‘secret’ big dream (which isn’t so secret!) is to finish a book I’ve been working on for a few years now titled ‘Coming Home to the Heart of Nature’, which is a compilation of some of my photographic work, as well as essays on my encounters with the natural world. The philosophy behind it is that in our modern-day world we have grown estranged from nature; we are a bit lost at this point in our evolution as a species. We forget that we have a deeply intimate and inseparable connection to this magnificent gem spinning through space, and if there is to be any hope for a healthy future for humankind, we all need to re-acquaint ourselves with nature that is within and around us. By aligning ourselves within the basic laws of nature, we can create more balance within and around us. We are all being called to do this, but are we listening, and will we heed the call?
I’m sure every artist has their own set of ‘customized’ roadblocks keeping them from their dreams. I can identify three real BIGGIES for me. I try not to let these roadblocks keep me from pursuing my dreams, but all too often they do. More often than not, I feel like I’m dancing with elephants (that’s gonna be my next book…) But just like the visual metaphor in some of my photos, water can wear down rock. I’ll press on with my dream despite how some days it feels like the closer I get, the farther it gets away…
There’s a promo for my book as part of my website at: http://www.quietlightvermont.com/book